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DOGE planning to centralize IRS data under one API

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During the height of tax season, billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is reportedly aiming to centralize all IRS data around a single portal allowing third parties easier access to taxpayer information, and will begin efforts next week with a “hackathon” to find solutions. DOGE apparently believes it can complete this project in about 30 days. 

As first reported by Wired, the goal is the creation of a central application programming interface, or API, a type of software that lets computer programs communicate with each other, enabling direct passage of data. Any software integration depends on API access to function. 

While the IRS already makes use of APIs—such as those it maintains for e-Services, Income Verification Express Service and Information Return Intake System—the group’s aim is to create a single super API from which one could access all agency data, enabling users to view and manipulate it in one place. Such a move would also facilitate increased cloud connectivity by third party developers. The project will likely need a private sector partner, and Wired said it would likely be surveillance tech company Palentir, run by fellow billionaire Peter Thiel.

Such a move would also serve to take the dozens of disparate systems housed in on-premises data centers, purposely compartmentalized from the cloud, into this new API. It is unknown whether, or how, the new API would account for the numerous special permissions currently required to access certain types of data. Wired said this has led to security concerns, as the IRS has sensitive data that would be of great value to criminals, and centralizing everything under a single API could disrupt the systems of control the service already has in place to safeguard taxpayer information. 

It is unknown how the wave of layoffs at the IRS might affect this project. Of particular note is the fact that the administration has placed 50 senior IRS tech leaders on paid administrative leave. However, overall headcount in the short term seems subject to rapid change, as many of those same IRS employees who were laid off were rehired to help with the tax season load. Nevertheless, last week the IRS shuttered its Office of Civil Rights and Compliance, which had 130 employees, made plans to lay off 20,000 more, and most recently has eyed further staff reductions

Meanwhile, the IRS and the Department of Homeland Security have reached an agreement to share IRS information on immigrants with DHS’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement unit. Under the memorandum of understanding, ICE will be able to ask the IRS for information such as addresses of people who have been ordered to leave the U.S. IRS officials had previously objected to sharing more extensive information such as Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers, and the disagreement reportedly led to the departure of the IRS’s former acting chief counsel

Musk, via DOGE, has said little about the IRS on his social media but has criticized the agency for its reliance on contractors as well as the slow pace of its modernization program. Recently, the government froze $1.5 billion in modernization contracts, which will either be canceled or be modified along pay-for-performance lines. 

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Total college enrollment rose 3.2%

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Total postsecondary spring enrollment grew 3.2% year-over-year, according to a report.

The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center published the latest edition of its Current Term Enrollment Estimates series, which provides final enrollment estimates for the fall and spring terms.

The report found that undergraduate enrollment grew 3.5% and reached 15.3 million students, but remains below pre-pandemic levels (378,000 less students). Graduate enrollment also increased to 7.2%, higher than in 2020 (209,000 more students).

Graduation photo

(Read more: Undergraduate accounting enrollment rose 12%)

Community colleges saw the largest growth in enrollment (5.4%), and enrollment increased for all undergraduate credential types. Bachelor’s and associate programs grew 2.1% and 6.3%, respectively, but remain below pre-pandemic levels. 

Most ethnoracial groups saw increases in enrollment this spring, with Black and multiracial undergraduate students seeing the largest growth (10.3% and 8.5%, respectively). The number of undergraduate students in their twenties also increased. Enrollment of students between the ages of 21 and 24 grew 3.2%, and enrollment for students between 25 and 29 grew 5.9%.

For the third consecutive year, high vocational public two-years had substantial growth in enrollment, increasing 11.7% from 2023 to 2024. Enrollment at these trade-focused institutions have increased nearly 20% since pre-pandemic levels.

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Interim guidance from the IRS simplifies corporate AMT

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Jordan Vonderhaar/Photographer: Jordan Vonderhaar/

The Internal Revenue Service has released Notice 2025-27, which provides interim guidance on an optional simplified method for determining an applicable corporation for the corporate alternative minimum tax.

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 amended Sec. 55 to impose the CAMT based on the “adjusted financial statement income” of an “applicable corporation” for taxable years beginning in 2023. 

Among other details, proposed regs provide that “applicable corporation” means any corporation (other than an S corp, a regulated investment company or a REIT) that meets either of two average annual AFSI tests depending on financial statement net operating losses for three taxable years and whether the corporation is a member of a foreign-parented multinational group.

Prior to the publication of any final regulations relating to the CAMT, the Treasury and the IRS will issue a notice of proposed rulemaking. Notice 2025-27 will be in IRB: 2025-26, dated June 23.

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Accounting

In the blogs: Whiplash | Accounting Today

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Conquering tariffs; bracing for notices; FBAR penalty timing; and other highlights from our favorite tax bloggers.

Whiplash

Number-crunching

  • Canopy (https://www.getcanopy.com/blog): “7-Figure Firm, 4-Hour Workweek: 5 Questions to Ask Yourself.”
  • The National Association of Tax Professionals (https://blog.natptax.com/): This week’s “You Make the Call” looks at Sarah, a U.S. citizen who moved to London for work in 2024. On May 15, 2025, it hit her that she forgot to file her 2024 U.S. return. Was she required to file her 2024 taxes by April 15?
  • Taxable Talk (http://www.taxabletalk.com/): Anteing up with Uncle Sam: The World Series of Poker is back, and one major change this year involves players from Russia and Hungary. After suspension of tax treaties with those nations, players will have 30% of winnings withheld. 
  • Parametric (https://www.parametricportfolio.com/blog): Direct indexing seems to come with a common misunderstanding: On the performance statement, conflating the value of harvested losses with returns. 

Problems brewing

  • Taxing Subjects (https://www.drakesoftware.com/blog): No chill is chillier than the client’s at the mailbox when an IRS notice appears out of the blue. How you can educate — and warn — them about the various notices everybody’s that favorite agency might send.
  • Dean Dorton (https://deandorton.com/insights/): Perhaps because they can be founded on trust, your nonprofit clients are especially vulnerable to fraud.
  • Global Taxes (https://www.globaltaxes.com/blog.php): When it’s your time, it’s your time: The clock starts on FBAR penalties when the tax forms are due and not when penalties are assessed — and even the death of the taxpayer doesn’t extend the deadline.
  • TaxConnex (https://www.taxconnex.com/blog-): Your e-commerce clients can muck up sales tax obligations in many ways. How some of the seeds of trouble might hide in their own billing system.
  • Sovos (https://sovos.com/blog/): What’s up with the five states that don’t have a sales tax?
  • Taxjar (https://www.taxjar.com/resources/blog): Humans are still needed to handle sales tax complexity, with real-world examples.
  • Wiss (https://wiss.com/insights/read/): A business — and business-advising — success story from a California chicken eatery.

Almost half done

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